Jurors in Superior Court Judge John Conley's courtroom deliberated about 90 minutes in February before convicting Agustin Armaraz Espinoza, 58, of first-degree murder in the July 29, 2010, killing.

SANTA ANA – An Orange County judge sentenced a man who bludgeoned his sleeping wife to death to 25 years to life in prison Friday, calling the man's actions "inexcusable."

Jurors in Superior Court Judge John Conley's courtroom deliberated about 90 minutes in February before convicting Agustin Armaraz Espinoza, 58, of first-degree murder in the July 29, 2010, killing.

Conley spoke of Espinoza's contention that he was provoked. The woman was sleeping in her separate bedroom, defenseless, he said.

"Provoked by a sleeping person? That doesn't make sense," the judge said. "What he did was inexcusable."

And, taking his wife's money and washing up after the murder showed "it didn't blow his mind," Conley added.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Murray described Espinoza's wife of 37 years, Marisela, as a "saint" to put up with his alcoholism and stealing – even from his own children – and standing by a man who was an "absolute train wreck."

Espinoza graduated from stealing from stores to stealing from his children and then from his wife to killing her, the prosecutor said.

"He's earned every single minute of 25 years to life" sentence, Murray said.

Espinoza testified at his trial that he wasn't himself and had been drinking heavily when he struck his wife once in the head with a tripod a short time after an argument in which she asked him to move out.

Prosecutors said the Santa Ana man, who gambled away $100,000, pawned family jewelry and had an extramarital affair his wife found out about, knew exactly what he was doing when he struck her seven times in the head.

Deputy Public Defender Tracy LeSage, fighting back tears, asked Conley to take into account Espinoza's more than three decades of marriage and loving his family, and not just focus on the last three years of his life, when he spiraled into a "downward negative dark area."

Espinoza's daughter told Conley her father took away her confidante and devastated a family.

"It's insulting to me in my opinion that there was never any remorse shown to me by the defendant," Deborah Espinoza said through tears. "My mother is the victim here."

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